Storytime
by KiraLiven
Summary: Futurefic of Annabeth telling a story to her children. Rated K for blood.


**A/N: I don't remember when I wrote this, and it's not very good, but I wanna delete it from my computer, so...**

**Technically first story. **

"Mama, can you tell us a story?" I heard Piper say, crawling onto mama's lap. Mama was sitting in her rocking chair by the fire.

"Oh yes, mama, please tell us a story!" Piper's twin, Jason, said. "Tell us a story about warriors and wars! Tell one about monsters and heroes!" Piper pulled a face and disagreed.

"I want a true story." Leo said defiantly. Luke nodded in agreement.

"How about one about love?" Hazel, Luke's twin, asked. At the age of five, Hazel barely knows anything, but her favorite word is love. She doesn't know how much that hurts mama and me. She doesn't know that love is the only thing that keeps us together, but it was also what hurt us in the first place. Piper and Jason barely know at all, they were too young. Leo and Frank are adopted, and they aren't affected as much. Piper, Jason, Frank and Leo are seven years old, and were only two when it happened. No, they couldn't remember. It's a small secret that stays between my mom, her few friends, and me. I'm older then all of them. I was seven then, and remember very well.

"How about you tell a story that's all of those?" I ask quietly. I look up at mama. Years of hard work, sadness and pain has aged her. She is actually only 29 years old, but she looks much older. Her wise gray eyes are tired and show that she has gone through much. Her beautiful honey blonde hair was always kept nicely in a ponytail or braid, except at nights.

"Yes, Thalia… maybe." Mama nodded slowly, thinking of a story to tell. We all sat on the couch across from her, beside the fire. Hazel sat on mama's lap. Mama began.

"I'm going to tell you guys about your father." Mama began slowly and quietly. "Leo, Frank, he's not your real father, but he and I took care of you when you were young. I'll explain everything during the story. His name was Percy Jackson.

"Percy was a son of Poseidon. He was born at a bad time, though. There was a prophecy about a demigod child of the big three, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, and the prophecy said that the child would either save or destroy Olympus. So the three Gods swore on the river styx not to ever have children with mortals again. But Gods get restless and forgetful, and Zeus broke is oath. You all know what happened to her." We all nodded. We were familiar with one of the most important story of camp half-blood, where mama lived for most of her life as a minor. "A few years later, Poseidon broke his oath as well. Hades was not happy with that at all, and when Percy was 12, he was attacked by a monster. His mother sacrificed herself for his safety, but was saved from death at the last minute by Hades. He wanted to use her to bribe Percy.

You see, Zeus's thunder bolt went missing, and people blamed Percy for it. Percy, Grover—now the lord of the wild—and I went on a quest to retrieve it. Eventually we did, and then Luke—you remember him from Thalia's story, right?—well, he betrayed us.

"When I was 14 and Percy 13, Grover was caught on a island in the sea of monsters, or the Bermuda triangle. Percy, Tyson—Percy's Cyclopes brother—and I ran away from camp to save him, and clearing Chiron's name as well. Luke had poisoned Thalia's tree, and Chiron was blamed. The only thing that could save Thalia was the golden fleece, which was on the island that Grover was on. So, we got the golden fleece, cleared Chiron's name, and freed Grover. But the golden fleece worked it's magic all too well, and Thalia came out of the tree, a demigod again.

"That winter, we went to recruit two powerful demigods. It didn't go well, and we met up with the huntress of Artemis. I was almost killed, and taken to Mt. Tam. Percy, Grover, Thalia and two huntress worked together to find Artemis and me, who had followed the monster to where I was. Both the huntress were killed, and Thalia joined the huntress. I think that was when I really knew I loved Percy. The quest had been to save Artemis, but to him, it was to save me." I took a look around the room. Everyone was happy with the story, well, everyone except for Jason. The action was all very short, and there were no details about it. I hoped mama would notice this, because Jason had a short attention span, and when he decided the story wasn't worth his time, the others quickly agreed.

"At the end of this story, I'll try to think of all the monsters I've met and fought, but you'll have to wait until I have said my whole story." Mama winked at me. She always knew when I was thinking about something important. Before, I had found that scary, and had distanced myself a bit, but when it happened and there was only us who knew, her ability to know what I was thinking helped tremendously.

"At 15, I had my first quest. One that was mine, at least. I went through the labyrinth with Percy, Grover, and Tyson. We failed, or at least for the most part. We were supposed to find the middle of the labyrinth, to find who or what was in the middle and stop Luke from getting the Yarn. Well, he got it anyway, and they came up to camp, through the labyrinth. We fought for around a day. We really weren't much, but we had help. The scariest and worse monster that we had to fight was Kempê. Briareos, a Hekantonkheries—hundred headed and armed son of Gaia and Uranos—helped Percy and me defeat her. You know, we had gone in together to keep her busy, but her swords were poisonous, and we breathed it in for too long, and we were going to die. Briareos killed her just in time.

"Then, at 16, the prophecy came true." At hearing this, all the kids gasped, wide-eyed. "Percy fought Kronus, who was in the body of Luke. At the very end, Luke killed himself. We fought for three days. We were losing very greatly, but luckily the Gods helped, even though they were all fighting other wars. Hades helped the most." Piper started clapping, and smiled.

"That's a really nice story. You guys were in love with each other then, right?" Piper said. Mama laughed.

"Oh no Piper, there's more!" She replied. "That's when Hazel-" She poked Hazel in the stomach, "And Piper-" Piper giggled. "Leo-" Leo nodded solemnly. "Frank…" Frank smiled a little, shy smile. "And Jason come in." Jason grinned.

"I like this story mama, but what about when you guys got married?" Frank was asking a completely sincere question. He really was confused.

"Why Frank, you guy are all named after people we know. Thalia was named after, well, Thalia, who else? You Frank, are named after Frank, and all of you are named after people that we met when we were 16 and 17. Well, this is a very long story, so I'll shorten it. We were part of seven demigods in another prophecy, and we all came to save—again—Olympus. We were, as you know, a mix of Romans and Greeks."

"How come they never visit us?" Jason asked. "I mean, If we were named after them, we should have seen them before, right?"

"Well Jason, you can't have met them before." Mama took a deep breath. "They died, or at least most of them did. Only your father and I kept in touch, though Jason died from a different fight." I remembered Jason, from when I was younger. Mama smiled sweetly at them. "We then went home, and after a few obstacles, got married. We then had Thalia." Mama took a deep breath. "Seven years ago, we had Jason and Piper, and found Leo and Frank on our doorstep. Then, two years after that, I was pregnant with Luke and Hazel. We didn't even have your names thought up yet, didn't even know your gender, but then something happened. Camp was in trouble. Because I was pregnant and we had a family, I stayed behind and Percy left to help. That was the last time I saw him." Silence filled the room.

"What happened to him?" Hazel asked.

"I don't know honey." Mama replied.

"You remember him, right Thalia?" Jason asked me. I stayed silent for a while, thinking of what to say.

"Yes, I remember him. I have a few memories of him, but they're starting to get hazy. I do remember different times while we were all a family, when you guys were only two." I smiled at them. They needed to know, or at least think, that everything was alright.

It was okay that papa was never coming back. That mama has taken care of seven children all by herself. That papa has never seen Hazel or Luke, doesn't even know that they both exist. "It's alright. We're fine now, right Luke? Frank? Jason? We're happy. And I think that all of the happy children of this family should all go to bed!" I finished, ushering them out to their rooms. Hazel and Piper share a room. The boys share another, and mama and I each have our own room. It used to be mama and papa's room, but now it's mama's room.

Just as the yawning kids were about to leave to their respective rooms, there was a rattling sound. We all turned around, and mama sprung up. Mama suddenly held a knife. I made sure my own knife was easy to get to as the kids all crowded behind me. The rattling sound came again. I recognized that sound as the sound of someone putting a key through our lock. Mama and I exchanged a glance. Only mama and I have keys to our house, so no one else should be able to get in.

Mama gripped her knife tighter. Now, she looks her age, or even younger. She doesn't look like a mother of seven children, who's father left before two of them were even born. She looks ready to take on anyone and anything. Her eyes are narrowed, and her lips pressed together tightly. She is relying on hearing more than anything, and reflexes and instinct.

The person trying to get in finally stopped trying to fit his key into the lock and knocked on the door instead. It was done quietly though, as if the person didn't want to disturb anyone. Mama slowly opened the door, and a gust of wind blew in. The kids clung tighter to me. I picked up Hazel and Luke.

In the door frame was a tall person. An adult, most likely. The person's shoulders sagged as if he were tired, and made scary panting noises. Looking down, I saw drops of blood fall onto the porch and the floor.

But mama wasn't scared of him. Instead, she threw her arms around him, sobbing. We just stared. When mama let go of him, she told us to all get things.

"Hazel and Luke, could you get pillows and sheets, and lay them here, on the table?" She said, and they ran off to get them. "Leo, Jason, and Frank, can you guys IM Chiron? Here if you can make it here." Leo scrambled to get a drachma, and Jason and Frank went to get a hose. "Piper, Thalia, can you guys help him up to the table? Preferably before the sheets come, but he'll heal better if he sleeps on the table tonight." Mama ran off to get something. I had questions swimming around in my head, but I didn't say anything and helped the man over to the table. The light was dark, so I couldn't see the man's face, but I knew better than to question mama's judgment. Piper and I got the man, who could barely hold his own weight, to the table. His breath came in shaky gasps, and blood was everywhere now.

Piper started to cry. I held her there, but then Hazel and Luke came back, put the sheets somewhere where it wouldn't get dirty, and started to cry too. If their mama could cry and their older sister could, they could too. They were tired and sleepy and there was a strange man that was breathing strangely and—to them, at least—the man was going to die.

When the rest of the kids came in, which was just when mama did too, they saw two girls and one boy crying by a bloody man close to death, and another girl trying to calm them. Jason and Frank started the IM, and Leo put the drachma as soon as the rainbow showed up. Mama started to work.

Mama first opened the bag that she had gotten. Inside, there were bandages and medicines. She had gotten a first aid kit. I helped mama take off the man's jacket, and then his bloody shirt, which we had to cut off. Piper, still crying, helped mama wipe away all the blood on and around him. Leo and Luke started to mop up the blood on the floor. Hazel went to get glasses of water, because being children of a son of Poseidon, water helps us heal and makes us more powerful.

The IM was taking a while, for some reason. I helped mama find the wounds, and told Piper to get wet rags to help. I knew we didn't really need it, but they might get in mama's way, so they needed something to do. I sent Leo and Luke to mop up the porch.

I took out the gauze while mama cleaned his wounds. Or tried to. There wasn't enough light to do anything else, so mama got Jason to get her candles and light them. When there was enough light for her to clean the wounds, she started.

I could now see the wounds as well as mama could. His chest had a slash on it, there were multiple cuts on his arms, and a gash on his side. There was only one wound on his face though, so I could see it clearly. Hazel passed me a glass of water, and Piper came back with rags. I looked at the face. He had black hair and eyes the color of the sea. The same eyes Hazel and Jason have. The same hair color as Luke and Jason. It didn't take me long to recognize the face, even with the scratch across his right cheek. He was my father, back home after five years. Five very long years.

Frank stopped trying to IM Chiron. It was too late at night. He stopped and looked at the papa. Yes, I could now call him papa. "Papa?" I asked quietly. I felt like I was five again, when papa had broken his arm, and I was worried he wouldn't live. He had sat on the same table, letting mama fix his cast. All the kids stood still. They didn't understand who I was talking to. Who their papa was. But papa knew, and so did mama. Papa's eyes flickered and finally found who had spoken.

"Annabeth?" he said in a raspy voice. They say I look like my mama when she was little. Now I know that papa was remembering how she was when they first met, when they were around my age.

"No papa. I'm Thalia. Your daughter, remember?" I hovered over him, and put the rag on his face. It was set, and since he was a son of Poseidon, he would get better and stronger when he comes in contact with water. I was correct, and papa sighed.

"Thalia? But Thalia's only eight… I think I'm seeing double… I can see… seven children… but I only have five… I'm so confused." I gave papa some water, and mama continued dressing his wounds.

"Papa, you've been gone for five years." I replied. "Mama was pregnant with twins when you left. They're now five. I'm twelve now papa. Leo, Frank, Piper, and Jason are seven now." Papa shook his head slowly.

"No, I've only been gone for a year!" He protested. Mama suddenly stopped.

"Where were you?" Mama said suspiciously, narrowing her eyes.

"I was went to camp because they want to make a city." He explained. "So I helped them get the material they needed and found a good site for it. Well, they already found a site, but it was infested with monsters, and that was the only good place for it to be. So I fought the monsters, with others, for a year. I kept trying to contact you guys, to get out, but the monsters had some kind of magic that kept me in." mama nodded.

"They must've had magic to make you think it was only a year." She said. "But it's really been five years." Papa sighed. "Well, you're all bandaged up now. If you can just get up for a while, we can put pillows and sheets here so you can sleep." Mama gently helped him up. "We can talk more in the morning, but I think it's enough for a day." She said firmly. Papa nodded in agreement. The kids protested, saying that they weren't tired, they could stay up, they didn't want to go to bed.

"Papa needs his rest, so if you aren't sleepy, you can stay up in your rooms, but you have to leave papa alone. And you have to be in your bed." I said firmly, leading them to their rooms. I picked up Hazel, who was practically asleep already. I put her in bed, and made sure everyone else was in bed as well. Then I turned off the lights and closed the doors. Papa was already asleep. I hugged mama, said goodnight, and went to bed myself. I wanted to think about what had just happened, to process it a bit more, but my body wanted me to sleep, and my eyes closed as soon as I got into bed.

"So they don't remember me. They won't like me, because I abandoned them." Papa was talking to mama on the couch. They were the only ones awake, besides myself. They don't know I'm here yet.

"Depends." Mama answered. "We could try to change their minds, but I'm not all that sure. You'll have to be there for a long time for them to forgive you."

"Do you think Thalia will forgive me?" Papa was whispering now, he didn't want this to all happen.

"Ask her yourself." Mama smiled. "You may come and join us, Thalia. Don't be shy." She beckoned me forward. I crept out of my hiding spot.

"Papa, I forgive you." I said. I walked forward and hugged papa. He smiled and hugged me back.

"Gods. You're so big!" He said. I grinned and sat down beside him.

"So it worked?" Mama was resuming the conversation, talking about something that I hadn't heard.

"More or less, yeah. We'll be allowed in there, if you guys want to move."

"But we're pretty safe here."

"Yeah… I told them that you wouldn't want to leave here. So they gave me a different proposal." Papa didn't elaborate much. "I was tempted. I thought you would know what I should do, so I asked if I could come home. They said yes, and then I was allowed to go."

"Who's they papa?" I asked. I was curious, and I'm not used to be in the shadows, not knowing what's happening.

"Thalia, this is grown-up stuff, alright, so don't interrupt much please." Mama chided. I ducked my head.

"Well Thalia, they are the Gods. I helped save the world—and their reign—twice now, and then I had the wonderful idea of making the city for Romans and Greeks, not just one of them. There might be some conflict, but it's made so that if you don't want to live with Romans or Greeks you can live in a different side and have nothing to do with them. The Gods like my ideas, and so they offered to give me something. Something big, but that was their only offer, and they said if I said no, I said no. So I asked for more time to think about it."

"But what was the offer?"

"Thalia…" Mama warned, and I ducked my head again. Papa laughed.

"I think you're old enough to know." Papa said.

"Well I don't, and I know her the best." Mama replied, firm.

"Thalia, the offer was the same as one they gave me before, except they made it better and more tempting. They offered to make me immortal." I gasped. Papa, immortal! What a thought! Mama shot an irritated look at papa. "But they also offered to make my whole family immortal, so I would never need to worry about losing you guys."

"The way we lost you." I said matter-of-factly.

"Yes. The way you lost me, but only for five years. So if I accepted, the nine of us will be immortal."

"And if you have more children, they will be too?" I glanced at mama, who was giving me a disapproving look. I ignored it.

"Well, I don't know if we'll have more children, but yes, they would be immortal too."

"Even if they're adopted?"

"Yes, even if they're adopted, the way Leo and Frank have mama and my abilities, even though they're not genetically ours." I nodded, understanding, yet not at the same time.

"Then what makes you not want to accept it? It sounds perfect."

"Sounds perfect? Well, they think it is perfect, but I've found flaws in being immortal. People who you love but aren't immortal will die while you cannot do anything. People like our friends. You lose track of time. To you, lives of mortals will soon seem trifle. The problems that are fatal and horrible to them won't seem so bad to you, because you think you've seen worse. You might've too." Now I was seeing that being immortal wasn't very good. "You also don't have any sense of value. Life is natural to you. You'll always be living, so if you want something, you can take as long as you want in doing it." I nodded.

"I don't want to be immortal." I decided. "The only good thing about being immortal is that you don't die, and don't have to worry about death." I continued thoughtfully. "But it's life and death that help you see. To tell you what is more important. To make you hold onto what is dear to you. To make you think more carefully about your actions and decisions, because one thing may cause everything you've ever known to fall apart. Like when you decided to leave. You didn't know that you would be gone for so long, and you didn't know you would leave your family here. I understand now."

"And your brothers and sisters will wake up soon." Mama finished for me. "So get dressed and I'll make breakfast. We can talk more when everyone's awake. I think this should be a group decision, and if most of us think that becoming immortal is better, then we will take the offer. If most think that staying mortal is better, we will stay mortal." And that was it. I went to get dressed, and came out right before anyone else woke up.

They found me sitting on papa's lap. We talked about ourselves, letting papa know about us a bit more. We talked through breakfast, and when we went off to papa and mama's friends to say that papa was back, papa knew almost everything about us. We also decided to stay mortal, to stay the way we were, because we were happy right now, and being mortal wasn't all that bad.


End file.
